Ms Radford said: “The business community are really concerned and, unfortunately, we have had lots of phone calls that this community are in the car park.

“I have been down and spoken to them today and I have said it’s causing us a huge amount of problems and people are very upset. They said they were waiting for a caravan that's to be released to them by Derbyshire Police by 6pm and that then they'll be moving on."

She added: “It’s distracting us from what we are here to do and we had no water over Christmas so had a massive bill and I’m really worried about this.

“We are going to have to repair the car park but it’s more the amount of money it’s costing us because we are not doing any fundraising and we could have a legal bill of thousands of pounds.”

Stephanie de la Faye, consultant in mental health of Survivors of Depression in Transition, on nearby Jessell Street, said: “It's a very difficult situation and we have to be careful not to tar people with the same brush.

“They haven't caused any issues other than the damage to the car park but for us we have vulnerable women coming to the centre who may feel intimidated by a group of men and dogs hanging outside the entrance.”